Court Grants Stay in Cranston Prison Gerrymandering Case

CRANSTON, RI—An appeals court has granted the city's request for a stay of a District Court judge's ruling that Cranston violated the Constitution by counting state prison inmates as Cranston residents.

Background: Judge: Cranston Violated Constitution by Counting Inmates in Gerrymandered Districts

The First Circuit Court of Appeals granted the city's motion for a stay but also that it be expedited, with a possible resolution before the November elections.

The city has been in the midst of a rocky process to re-draw the boundary lines of Ward 6 ever since District Court Judge Ronald Lagueux concluded the city had engaged in "prison gerrymandering" by counting inmates at the Adult Correctional Institutions as Ward 6 voters, unfairly inflating the voting power of the ward.

Lagueux, at the end of May, ordered the city to present a new redistricting plan to the court within 30 days. The city's hastily convened redistricting committee, in vote that followed party lines, sent a new map for a full City Council vote last week amid an outcry by Republicans that the final map choice was in essence gerrymandering of a different sort: to weaken the chances of Ward 5 Republican Chris Paplauskas from being reelected.

This is a developing story. It will be updated.